The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton

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If you’re from the generation that was wowed by Total Recall, Marathon Man and/or The Matrix, this book will appeal to you.

It was originally published in 1988, long before the internet, mobile phones and the general digitalisation of technology. Having said that, Michael Crichton is nothing if not imaginative and forward thinking. The Terminal Man is about a man who has a tiny computer implanted in his brain to try and control violent seizures.

The book is actually set in 1971. There are computers in the book, but one such machine is described as ‘a machine that sprayed the letters with a nozzle, rather than typed them out mechanically’ – what we now know as an inkjet printer.

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Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins

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We all know Jackie Collins. She’s up there with Jilly Cooper, and writes about the people who fascinate us: Hollywood celebrities. Ahh, celebrities – fascinating, mysterious and hailed as the leading lights of each successive generation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as taken in as the next person, but let’s be honest about it.

This is the original bestseller, not ‘The New Generation’ published in 2001. This one was published in 1983, pre-dating our modern celebrity culture, ambitions and expectations – well, I thought so anyway. I’m not sure if it’s reassuring or depressing to think attitudes 25 years ago are actually the same as now. We haven’t changed much at all.

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